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Closure of Association for Research on Mothering March 4, 2010

As of May 1, ARM will be forced to close due to York University’s refusal to provide funding. This is a very great loss for anyone doing work in this area. A letter from Director Andrea O’Reilly, with more information about the closing, can be found here.

If you can, please send emails, attesting to ARM’s importance, to the addresses below. What follows is a brief excerpt from Andrea’s letter:

The Association for Research on Mothering was founded in 1998, its journal in 1999, and its press in 2006. Over these twelve years ARM’s accomplishments have been many and diverse including: 35 international conferences, including conferences in New York City and in Puerto Rico and one recently planned for Portugal in 2011; 22 journal issues and ten Demeter Press titles published (with another 15 Demeter Press titles in production or under contract) [ the list goes on – JN] …

ARM receives NO funding from York University though in recent years York has provided a small office for ARM and some teaching release for myself as director (and does provide accounting and financial services). …With York’s refusal to provide some funding or to cover some of ARM’s operational costs and its recent decision to freeze our accounts and suspend its research activities, I see no other choice but to close ARM. I believe that ARM’s many achievements make ARM deserving of institutional support and have done my utmost to convince York of this but York remains steadfast in its argument that ARM must operate on a cost-recovery basis
with no institutional support, (though York’s many research centres receive far more in university funding than ARM is requesting and do far less in research activities). I ask that any comments or questions on the forced closure of ARM be directed to the following individuals (please cc arm@yorku.ca; aoreilly@yorku.ca):

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7 Responses to “Closure of Association for Research on Mothering”

This organization deserves our support, for so many reasons. And it is needed. There are so very few places where the practice of mothering is allowed to inform the academic sphere of knowledge-creation and dissemination. The work of ARM alone has greatly increased the written body of knowledge on feminist, maternally-influenced philosophy, social sciences, literary and media analysis, and health sciences. Shame on York. Up with ARM.

[…] end up moving. We are open to any and all options.” Want to help? Here are some suggestions: Feminist Philosophers has a list of people to e-mail. There’s a Friends of the Association for Research on Mothering Facebook page. Buy stuff from […]

I am Vinayaka Selvi from Tamil Nadu, India. I am researching on Motherhood studies and ARM is the greatest resource to introduce several dimensions of mothering/motherhood. It should not have happened to ARM. It is totally depressing.

Having just discovered ARM during the process of researching an MA thesis of the poltical,enconomic and instritutional manipulation of motherhood/mothering / mothers. I was excited to find a place where motherhood appears to be valued for its own sake. How sad to read the organisation closed down. Another indication of how little some care about mothers’ needs